Continuous irrigation with suction started at early days after pancreatic surgery prevents severe complications

The management of pancreatic leakage is important after pancreatic resection because such leakagge can be associated with additional complications. In this paper, we present a new therapy "irrigation with suction" after pancreatic surgery. The addition of suction permits the start of irrigation early after surgery and prevents severe post-operative complications. Between January 1995 and June 2003, 29 consecutive patients underwent surgical treatment of the pancreas for a variety of indications. Among them, 18 patients were treated with continuous irrigation with suction prophylactically. In these 29 patients, we did not encounter any additional complications such as intraabdominal hemorrhage or abscess formation. A representative case report demonstrates the application of this treatment. The irrigation with suction therapy was started on the first post-operative day after the pylorus-preserving pancreatoduodenectomy with left lobectomy of the liver. CT with irrigation of contrast reagent showed that the reagent did not spread to the uninvolved abdominal area, and the patient did not develop hemorrhage or abscess. It seems that continuous irrigation with suction therapy was effective in preventing additional serious complications after pancreatic resection.